Your Comments (oldest first)

magic is right. United let Ronaldo go but only because he was going abroad. They would never allow a rival to buy their players. Although Villa spend money they will always be a selling club because anyone who achieves can be easily bought by a bigger club. Thats not a dig at Villa, thats the way it is for most teams!

I think it illustrates what I've been saying for a while, here and elsewhere, that MON was backed to a level that matches where we are but not sufficient for a top four spot. There's a lot of people who believe the money he spent should have guaranteed a top four finish. That's rubbish. The bare figures do not tell the whole story though and there are important factors to take into account. For example MON came at a time where the entire squad needed to be overhauled so he was essentially building from scratch unlike some of the other top 6/7 teams who had established squads.
Who exactly are in the fight for the top four? The simple answer would be Villa, Liverpool, Spurs and Citeh. Out of those four which team has the lowest net spend? Which teams have achieved or look likely to achieve top four. Most neutral people would have said Villa would be the outsiders of that set of teams for the last few seasons.
I don't think it's fair to blame Randy for this, or MON. Randy has a limit to the amount he can realistically put in and what he can allow to be spent to keep the club stable. MON did well with what he had and the chairman can't afford to put anymore in. It's a simple equation that equals 3 consecutive top six finishes, an ambitious manager desperate for more funds to break into the top four and a sensible chairman wanting to keep the books balanced. Ergo the difference on the future of the club RL was talking about.

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